About Stephan

Stephan Pratt is a gifted realist artist who draws and paints the people and places he knows. Thanks to a life time of hard work and classical apprenticeships, Stephan's work combines virtuoso technique, aesthetic beauty and, above all, personal empathy. Stephan prefers to work on an individual basis, so that a client or patron can forge a rapport or even a friendship with the artist; all of which makes more special and significant the experience of a painting commission with him. People who own and collect Steph's work always have a personal rapport or history with the artist, and this makes the painting more powerful. Steph creates his paintings on site -- "live" and in person -- and he welcomes including you in the process. His work is then continued and completed in his cozy studio in Pebble Beach. Every commissioned painting takes on its own wonderful story.



Stephan grew up in Portland, Maine, playing pond hockey, dreaming of playing for the Boston Red Sox, and looking all around for people to draw. The Beatles were his earliest artistic influence. During college study in France (where he had a brief stint as a practice player with Dijon's professional hockey club), he saw great paintings for the first time. Seeing Rembrandt, Renoir, Matisse and Monet was like experiencing masterful Beatles songs in painted form, and Stephan knew what he wanted to do. Awarded the top portfolio scholarship back at University of New Hampshire, he was mentored by master artist Sigmund Abeles. Post-college years were characterized trekking and drawing adventures to northern India and North Africa, and interpreter work with Sports Illustrated (at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games) and the ATP Men’s Tour in France; all the while, Steph worked furiously in his sketchbook from unique perspectives: the photographers’ pit during a John McEnroe match, the inside of a nomadic tent among yaks in the lower Himalaya, endless train rides. These experiences feed his work today as professional artist at the Pebble Beach AT&T Pro-Am. Stephan's study in an MFA painting program at Maine College of Art exposed him to personal guidance from Robert Storr, then-MOMA director in New York and current Yale University art director.

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Now in his 21st year of teaching, Stephan is blessed to be living his dream: raising a wonderful family, making art, and teaching, while serving as art director and coach at Stevenson School, in Pebble Beach, California.